Tuesday 16th September 2008

Intel launches first six-core processors

Posted at: 12:05pm 16th September 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

New 7400-series Xeons feature up to six cores in one package, and up to 16MB of Level 3 cache

Intel’s six-core Dunnington CPUs were one of the worst kept secrets of this year, with rumours appearing as far back as February, when we first reported on them. However, the launch is now official, and Intel has now spilled all the beans about its first six-core CPUs.

The new 7400 series of Xeon CPUs can feature up to six 45nm cores, as well as up to 16MB of Level 3 cache. As well as this, a server motherboard can chain up to 16 of these CPUs together, making for an incredible total of 96 cores in one machine. The new chips use Socket 604.

At the top of the heap is the Xeon X7460, which has six cores clocked at 2.66GHz each, 16MB of Level 3 cache and a toasty TDP of 130W. However, the lower-clocked 2.13GHz Xeon L7455, which also has six cores and 12MB of Level 3 cache, has a much lower TDP of just 65W. This is quite an achievement, as it means that each core effectively has a power level of just under 11W. Five other 7400-series Xeons have been released in various guises, which are listed in the table below.

Of course, these chips are clearly targeted at the server end of the market rather than standard desktop PCs, but it’s always worth keeping an eye on Xeons as a hint of what may come to the desktop in the future. Technologies such as Hyper-Threading, Intel’s first dual-channel DDR memory chipset and even SLI first appeared in Xeon systems, and have since become mainstream desktop technologies. Of particular note are the low power requirements of the L-series chips, with a quad-core Xeon L7445 having a TDP of just 50W.

CPU	TDP	Cores	Speed	L3 cache
X7460	130W	6	2.66GHz	16MB
E7450	90W	6	2.4GHz	12MB
E7440	90W	4	2.4GHz	16MB
E7430	90W	4	2.13GHz	12MB
E7420	90W	4	2.13GHz	8MB
L7455	65W	6	2.13GHz	12MB
L7445	50W	4	2.13GHz	12MB

More images for this article:

Intel Xeon 7400 wafer

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Comments

Is the money around...?

"The Recession is strong with this one."

Comment by C7ouD at 7:02pm 21st September 2008

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Socket 604

They are MP chips which use socket 604 not DP ones which use 771. Hope that helps :)

Comment by PlasmaBomb at 9:58pm 18th September 2008

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Intel 3 AMD 1

Core2, Quad Core, Now new xeons. AMD, only because they are a merger with ATi did they bring the 4000 series. :)

Comment by Lightning_Pete at 6:27pm 18th September 2008

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9000

Comment by Mizugetsu at 2:15am 17th September 2008

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l3v1ck

Agreed. (re. the site)

Comment by cjagusz at 8:56pm 16th September 2008

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Folding@home?

One of these pin overclocked? + F@H = lots of ppd.

Comment by DudQuitter at 7:12pm 16th September 2008

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Edit typo

....very little that will USE that many cores.... They need to edit this site so you can edit your own comments.

Comment by l3v1ck at 6:08pm 16th September 2008

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Not for home users.

I can see the point for businesses, but on the home PC there's very little that will that many cores. If Intel ever release a Core i7 version, you'd still be better off getting a fast quad core in my opinion.

Comment by l3v1ck at 6:04pm 16th September 2008

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50W Quad Core - superb!

When the desktop variety comes around, I'm thinking passively cooled quad core system: Coupled with a solid state hard drive and all put in the right case, near silence & still with bags of power. Bliss!

Comment by J_Thames at 4:32pm 16th September 2008

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"The new chips use Socket 604" That's a bit odd... i thought all new Xeons used the LGA771 socket... with a couple of LGA775 Models thrown in for good measure...